European Short Film Audience Award (ESFAA)

A crosscut of the European social climate focuses on intimate connections, particularly loneliness and the absence of (romantic) love. If the Belgian Love to Death seeks for love in old age, the French Two People Exchanging Saliva paints a tragic narrative of a society in which kissing is forbidden and relations are cold. One contextual exception is the Polish film My Secret Cyberlove, which is a genre hybrid of an 80s sitcom and a sci-fi-infused horror.

There are also several other films that alert us to domestic abuse and violence against women as a by-product of patriarchy. The documentaries Rose and Between Delicate and Violent both dive into the director’s grandparents’ family archives to uncover the hidden history of violence, which had evaded family videos but remained in oral tradition. The Spanish short Cura Sana portrays the domestic violence through the eyes of a child, thus subtly revealing the impact the father’s violence had on the entire family.

This versatile selection also includes two animations that spotlight fish. The first, Fish River Anthology, captures the Finnish black humour and uses song to address the existential issues of fish awaiting their buyers in the frozen food section. The second, Percebes, presents a native seashell to create an environmental and social portrayal of Portugal’s Algarve region and its inhabitants.

What is the pulse of Europe today, then? It alternates between loneliness and the yearning to connect, the fight against old patriarchal norms, and the condemnation of violence, all while spiced with a pinch of environmental awareness and plenty of humour. The ESFAA selection not only offers an insight into contemporary European art filmmaking but also reflects Europe’s social reality, which is diverse, yet linked through common social challenges and the universal human desire for intimacy and belonging.

Maruša Kuret